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Taiwan Building Lunar Lander For NASA Moon-Mining Mission (blastingnews.com)
MarkWhittington quotes a report from Blasting News: According to AFP, the Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology in Taiwan is building a $47 million, 3.7 metric ton lunar lander on behalf of NASA. The vehicle is designed to carry a rover called Resource Prospector, which would roll about the lunar surface searching out deposits of oxygen, hydrogen, and water. The Resource Prospector mission is still being formulated but is envisioned to be a joint project with several national space agencies and commercial companies. The lunar lander is the first vehicle of its type to be built in Taiwan. "The Resource Prospector would take samples from about a meter beneath the lunar surface and then heat them in an oven to ascertain what the materials are that comprise it," reports Blasting News. The mission is part of the second stage to NASA's Journey to Mars program called "Proving Ground." "Should the Resource Prospector prove to be successful, the moon could be used as a base for space journeys into Mars," says Han Kuo-change, the head of CSIST's international cooperation program.
if there is real competition(instead of crony capitalist control) and real money (instead of subsidies) is space transport and infrastructure business, opened to private enterprises, asian companies (and russians) will blast american ones like spacex to bankruptcy.
but usa is big on preaching free markets but bad at practicing them .
doesn't nasa have military implications? military products must be made in the USA
Yeah, well, you know... low bid... Kinda sucks that it takes precedence over quality, but at least the damn thing is unmanned.
the moon could be used as a base for space journeys into Mars
It would be nice to use the moon as a fuelling station on the way to Mars, but that only makes economic sense if there are lots of high-payload missions.
And why would anyone do that? Science is getting smaller. The Chinese might want to do a few manned missions to show the world they are no longer stagnating in the 16th century. But once they've proved it, they'll be going back as often as the US goes to the moon.
It's about Taiwan joined the space race. Good to see it.
Save China the trouble of planting spies and hacking computers just give it to them directly.
You have to wonder if this was a parting deal for Obama or ongoing relations with the Clinton Crime Family(TM)(C)
(and russians) will blast
insightful words in your sentence
Perhaps, but...$47M for a four tonne lunar lander? Lockheed-Martin probably wouldn't even answer the phone unless you put a $100M deposit in first. :-p
Ezekiel 23:20
So who gets the mineral rights? Or is this like Milo Minderbinder: 'we all get a share'?
Will it have Hello Kitty on it? Everything else in Taiwan does, I think they like it more than the Japanese.
if there is real competition(instead of crony capitalist control) and real money (instead of subsidies) is space transport and infrastructure business
Already there. I can think of a half dozen organizations capable of launching a satellite into orbit and I'm no expert at all. (SpaceX, ULA, Orbital Sciences, NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS, CNSA off the top of my head) Several of these are private companies and more are coming online in the near future (Blue Origin, Orbital ATK) Government money is still a thing but becoming less so by the day.
opened to private enterprises, asian companies (and russians) will blast american ones like spacex to bankruptcy.
Based on what exactly? There is nothing preventing asian companies from getting into space now. It's not like the US can tell a company in India that they aren't allowed to launch anything into space. You pretend like the US is incapable of competing but so far the only private companies that are launching stuff into space are based in the US.
but usa is big on preaching free markets but bad at practicing them .
Believe whatever you want but the actual fact is that the US among the strongest advocates of free markets and global trade. Sometimes to a fault. This is unlike countries like China where there are very substantial trade restrictions on foreign companies and currency controls. I would argue that the US isn't especially good at negotiating favorable free trade deals but they keep trying.
Taiwan! Number One!
From someone who has been involved in the bidding process, this is not how it works. 1. Does it do what you need it to? 2. Are they able to deliver what they promise? (No fly-by-night ma and pa garage shops). 3. Do they have a quality process and history? 4. Price.
If it was lowest bidder only, then people would be coming in with bids of $1M, and after 6 months showing a picture they drew on a napkin and be happy that they got a million dollars with their cancellation notice.
of the Chicoms getting hold of advanced NASA rover technology. This is an incautious idea.
Why did NASA offshore it? Why not build it *here*... or are they saying that "we're not good enough any more", or was it, "they're cheaper, so we'll give them our tax dollars and technology".
NASA is NOT paying taiwan to develop this. THis is a partnership with Taiwan in which Taiwan is paying for their half of this. Basically, they are supplying part of this mission, while NASA is putting it and other items on the ground.
IOW, this does NOT take away from American jobs.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I hope none of the parts have been outsourced from China.
"Designed in USA, Assembled in Taiwan from parts Made in China"
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
So projects go where the engineering talent lies. NASA going to Taiwan: (i) builds good relations and allows Taiwan to participate in the space adventures of mankind, (ii) maybe indicates that better skills can be found outside of the US (liberal edumacation, pc policies, evolutionarianism).
So NASA gave up on colonization, they gave up on discovering tech to push into the private sector, they gave up on colonization, they gave up on exploration of other stars, they gave up on launching military craft and they've given up on developing new more advanced propulsion systems.
We are now paying them to outsource sci/tech work to fucking Taiwan?
A "metric ton"? So that would be a tonne then. Come on, really.